A Few Words About AI
March 16, 2025
A Few Words About AI
With all the talk of AI worming its way into our lives with its squiggly little tentacles, I’d like to put my opinion out there. I’ll say it plainly and clearly. I despise the use of AI in writing. I’ve never used it and I never will.
First, I’ll speak generally of AI. In my view, it’s just not intelligent. In fact, it’s quite stupid. Most AI companies have been using the internet to train their AI models. And since most of what we find on the internet is editorial blather and Tik-Tok dreck, I can’t think of a worse way to teach. Imagine sending your kid to school knowing they were being fed a blended diet of Instagram selfies and the comments section of Newsmax. Would you expect your child to come home intelligent? I suspect not. Intelligence in any form, by definition, must be smart. Right now, AI is plain-old stupid. Period.
About using AI in writing. Again, my blunt answer is no. No, I’ve never used AI in my writing and I never will. Even when AI was in its pre-natal form and all we had to deal with was autocorrect on our phones, I’d find myself swearing up and down at my devices, telling them to stop trying to change my words or read my mind. I mean, ducking is the perfect example of someone else’s idea of “intelligent” getting in the way of what I really wanted to say. Now, as AI has expanded into predictive text, autoreplies and grammar correction, I’m even more annoyed by its intrusion.
Here’s what I believe. I believe that human creativity is only achieved in its undiluted form. Humans creating. Humans helping other humans to build something new. Our creativity is diluted when AI is used, and the result is often mediocre. Using AI puts another entity in control, and relegates you to the role of automaton, sitting in front of a keyboard with no character keys, just arrows, clicking left or right, choosing your own adventure as it’s fed to you. If you’re not drawing from your own knowledge and experience to create with your own voice, then you are not a writer. Frankly, I don’t know what you are. I admit, I don’t know every word in the English language, or every expression, or every way to say, “he said, grinning sheepishly.” But that’s where my voice comes from—my understanding of certain words and phrases and my ignorance of others. My writing is only made better by my own exploration and education, and from the expertise of a human editor who understands it. Grammar-checking AI would have me use a word I’d never otherwise choose, ultimately making my writing sound common and consumable but totally soulless.
The reason we revere art and other forms of human expression, whether it’s done through writing, singing, performing, composing or even competing, is to celebrate the ever-increasing capacity of human creativity. It’s why we frown on auto-tune in our music. It’s why we go to a live shows. It’s why we put our kids’ terrible drawings on the refrigerator. It’s why we ban performance-enhancing drugs in pro sports. And it’s why we attend readings at our local bookstores and why Hollywood can’t stop making movies out of novels.
If any of these things are done by artificial means they lose their value and their relevance. They become cheap knockoffs, cheats, a cellphone photo so contorted by software filters and lens correction that it’s more of a computer-generated impression of a scene than an actual photograph of it. So, to reiterate, I will never use AI in my writing. For me, writing is the ultimate expression of my perception and interpretation of the world, with all the imperfections that come with it. Using AI at any stage of the process is an insult to my creativity and ultimately a deception to the reader. I’ll have no part of it.